Angie Pedersen's The Blog of ME

TwitterMoms Holiday Shops

From TwitterMoms.com:
This list of links comes from the TwitterMoms Holiday Catalog. You'll find literally hundreds of places to shop (and great gift ideas) here, for you and your readers. Shopping is easy -- just click any link to visit the site directly.

@AngiePedersen Twitter Roundup - Week of 11/23/08

Here's some highlights from the "tweets" I posted to Twitter this past week.

• Thanks to the heads up from @LynetteRadio - a link to www.PodsafeChristmas.com from @EdRoberts


• via @craft, some lovely duct tape gift bows


• via @craft, a link to designsponge's giftwrap roundup: http://snipurl.com/sponge_giftwrap


• Via @phyllismufson - Holiday EtsyFest sale by 200 artisans has begun.


• Neat idea for framing/displaying scrapbook layouts or children's artwork - could be a good grandparent gift!


• Whohoo! Just 33 WW Rewards points away from Photoshop Elements 7! http://www.wwincrediblerewards.com


• Mmmm - single serve triple chocolate cake made in the microwave - from HungryGirl.com


• Via DIYMaven at curbly.com, a link to a simple DIY snowglobe tut at readymade.com


• Holiday Gift Guide from @Make - inspiring gifts for kids


• Can I say 'I took the handmade pledge' if some Xmas gifts are handmade & some aren't? Is it all or nothing? http://www.buyhandmade.org/


• Have you clicked today? Click to Give @ The Breast Cancer Site


• Impressed with the free backgrounds and layouts on The Cutest Blog on the Block


• here's my current desktop wallpaper, combining 2 of my fav things - yarn & ice cream!

The Entire Book of Me Series Now Available

I discovered this morning that I am not currently offering a deal that I have offered for years.  Ummm...huh?

I mean, for years, I have sold all three copies of my Book of Me series at one discounted price. But when I popped over to The Book of Me shop this morning, I realized I hadn't created that sales page when I moved my shop from OneScrappySite to Typepad.  OY!

So I have now created a sales page for the three-book combo deal: The Angie Pedersen Special - The Entire Book of Me series

I think the combo is aptly named - sounds rather egotistical, I know, but what better name for something that encourages you to be a little self-centered once in a while?  :)

Follow Angie on Twitter

I am totally tweeting up a storm these days - I manage to fit in multiple updates a day, which is much more frequent than I am able to pull together a post here.  I share all sorts of cool finds, and little bits of my day.  And even better, I started a Book of Me account, where I will be sharing *all* Book of Me-related tips, quotes, prompts, and general inspiration to help get you pumped to scrap your stories.

http://www.twitter.com/AngiePedersen
http://www.twitter.com/BookofMe

Holiday Mail for Heroes

From the American Red Cross website:

The Red Cross is partnering with Pitney Bowes this holiday season for the Holiday Mail for Heroes campaign. For the second year in a row, we’re collecting holiday cards to distribute to American service members, veterans and their families in the United States and around the world. Pitney Bowes is generously donating technology, resources and postage to make this holiday card program possible.

Their goal is to collect and distribute one million holiday cards to spread holiday cheer and facilitate thanks to these brave individuals and families.

Guidelines for participating are available on the Red Cross website: http://www.redcross.org/holidaymail

Unrelated to Red Cross - You could also contribute mini stockings to this effort (scroll down to "A Call for Help in Service Project") - I shipped off five stockings this weekend.

Dinner Tonight: Fettuccine with Blue Cheese Sauce

The recipe actually calls for mushrooms and artichoke hearts, but since I forgot to pick up either at the grocery store today, we'll be having this with spinach.  :)

Fettucine with Blue Cheese Sauce
POINTS® Value: 6
Servings: 4
From Weight Watchers "5 Ingredient, 15 Minute Cookbook"

Ingredients

• 10oz tub Refrigerated Light Alfredo Sauce
• 9oz package Refrigerated Fettuccine
• 2 tbsp blue cheese, crumbled
• 1 cup(s) chopped frozen spinach

Instructions
Cook pasta according to package directions.
While pasta cooks, cook spinach in microwave.
Place Alfredo sauce in saucepan and add spinach. Cook until thoroughly heated.
Place drained pasta in a large bowl. Pour sauce mixture over pasta; toss to combine.
Sprinkle with cheese.

Jayne Cobb Hats

I finally got my boys to pose together wearing the Jayne Cobb Hats I knitted for them. Kinda cunning, doncha think?

This incredibly stylish hat has been enthusiastically adopted and recreated by fans of Joss Whedon's sadly-defunct "Firefly" TV series.  I tell you, it's a cosmic injustice that the series was canceled after 14 episodes - each one of them was truly perfection. one two-hour pilot and thirteen one-hour episodes. The show originally aired in the US in 2002 on FOX, although FOX aired the episodes out of the intended order and did not air three of the fourteen episodes. [source: Wikipedia]  Doomed to fail from the start, unfortunately.

The hat is also truly perfection, which is inspired by a hat worn by one of the show's characters, Jayne Cobb, in one of the episodes. Crafty fans of the show immediately set about making their own versions.  I used Dryope's pattern, with Vanna's Choice yarn.  (Yes, I know it's acrylic yarn, and some of you may very well turn up your yarn-snob noses at that, but I'm ok with that.  I wanted the hats to be sturdy and machine washable.  So there.)

I think the ear flaps turned out a little long, but the boys are ok with them, so I can get over it.  These were my first ever hats, so if long ear flaps are the worst of it, I call it a win.  :)

Dinner Tonight - Tuscan Roast Chicken

Dinner tonight was a repeat of a recent experiment that didn't go so well.  I "fixed" the recipe, and this time it was 'approved'.  :)

Tuscan Roast Chicken
POINTS® Value: 6
Servings: 4
From the May/June 2008 issue of Weight Watchers magazine

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp rosemary
• 4 clove(s) garlic clove(s), minced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp lemon zest, grated(I used dried lemon peel)
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 4 breast(s) uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 2T white wine vinegar (recipe originally called for 1/4c balsamic vinegar, which was nixed in my family, so I substituted a little less white wine vinegar)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 deg. Mix the rosemary, garlic, olive oil, lemon zest, and salt in a bowl. Add the chicken and toss to coat. Place the chicken on a 9x13 baking dish. Cover with foil and bake 30 min. Increase oven temp to 450 deg. Drizzle vinegar over chicken. Bake uncovered until the chicken is browned and an intstant-read thermometer reads 170 deg; about 10 min. Transfer to a platter and let stand 5 min. Skim any fat from pan juices. Serve the pan juices with chicken.

Another Bunny Blankie Friend

I finished another Bunny Blankie Friend last night - it turned out so cute! 

I kind of played around with this one - it's a modified version of the crochet Bunny Blanket Friend I did recently, from a Lion Brand pattern.  I wanted to make the blanket/body part look like a thermal weave blanket, so I used the four-row thermal stitch/technique from the Knitty Thermal pattern (two rows of K2, P2, two rows of garter, repeat), and decreased on each side to create a sort of "neck". Then I crocheted the head and ears according to the original Lion Brand pattern.  Arms are just a rectangle of pink fleece stitched on, and knotted.

It's knit with two strands of Bernat Cottontots together - one white, one Pretty in Pink.

I am now in love with this thermal stitch, and plan to use it to make some baby washcloths, as well as trying my hand at the actual Knitty sweater. 

What I love about this bunny project is that it's "hybrid", both knitting and crochet.  Usually when I post about hybrid projects on this blog, I mean digital + paper scrapbooking.  But this project was hybrid, meaning knitting + crochet.  I'm so ambi-craftual!  ;)

I'm Tweeting

FYI - I'm tweeting and loving it!

Follow me, if you're of a mind.